DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. — Danica Patrick bounded down the steps of her motorhome, her neon green firesuit bathed in a lovely shade of white shimmering above the epicenter of Daytona International Speedway.

"It's a full moon!" she exclaimed with a big smile about an hour before the start of the Sprint Unlimited.

But doesn't such a lunar event often portend an unusually turbulent night at the racetrack?

Patrick already might have been prepared for the wild sequence of events in the exhibition race that kicked off the Sprint Cup Series season Saturday.

Long before her No. 10 Chevrolet was eliminated by a violent collision with boyfriend Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in a race that will be remembered for a pace car catching on fire, Patrick already had lobbied NASCAR officials for a garage policy change in a closed-door meeting, been ambushed by a stranger holding a Frisbee and lost the draft for a few anxious moments at 200 mph.

USA TODAY Sports shadowed Patrick Friday and Saturday as she prepared for the Sprint Unlimited through two practice sessions, multiple team debriefings and frenetic driver introductions.

FRIDAY

4:13 p.m.: There are two sure signs it's the first weekend of the season: two public relations representatives are scrambling to locate Sharpies, and Patrick is breaking in some new outerwear.

"Am I going to need this?" she asks, carrying a stylish black jacket. A regular patron of the trendy stores that line Chicago's Michigan Avenue, Patrick is pleased to learn the weather probably will require it.

"This do-it-all jacket is engineered to repel rain," she intones in her best announcer's voice while reading the tag that still hangs from it.

4:18 p.m.: On the short golf-cart ride to the garage, Patrick already is diagnosing handling problems. She hops off to discover the right-rear tire scraping the fender. She doesn't linger long, though, walking briskly through the garage entrance. Thankfully armed with a Sharpie scrounged up by the handlers, she signs eight autographs and poses for two photos in the 30-foot walk to her car.

She leans on the roof and talks with crew chief Tony Gibson and Hendrick Motorsports engine official Scott Maxim. It's a detailed conversation about radiator fans, water temperatures and tachometer settings, and Patrick spends much of it grilling Maxim to ensure she understands how and when to shift gears in the pits.

"She's always like a sponge, and those things get overlooked," Gibson says. "She wants to make sure she's using all those tools to get the most out of it. That's how focused and how much desire is there. She just doesn't have the experience right now."

Danica Patrick talks with a crew member during practice for the Sprint Unlimited. “She’s always like a sponge," says her crew chief Tony Gibson.(Photo: Andrew Weber, USA TODAY Sports)

4:53 p.m.: Practice begins at 5 o'clock, and the game plan is formulated as soon as Patrick climb inside the cockpit. "Obviously, we want to get in a group, even if it's at the front," she says. "Let me know when people are getting organized and ask around to see what our teammates are doing."

It doesn't prevent Patrick from losing the draft almost immediately as her car struggles to reach full power on a brisk evening in Daytona with temperatures in the 50s. "I'm not going to catch it," she says.

Five minutes into the session, she has to enter the pits and then pull back onto the track so she can be swallowed up by a pack of a dozen cars roaring off Turn 4. She delicately drifts backward and slides in between Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards. After 16 laps, she is 11th fastest, and Gibson calls her in for the session.

5:37 p.m.: It'll be nearly an hour before she's back on track. Patrick walks over to the NASCAR hauler directly across from her stall, and after a few minutes of casual conversation with vice presidents Jim Cassidy and Steve O'Donnell, it becomes evident this is more than a social visit. A new layout — parking haulers by teams instead of by points — has left Patrick's hauler on the opposite side of the garage from the team's stall.

Aside from being a minor inconvenience for her team members — one will log more than 20,000 steps and 10 miles Friday on a pedometer — it's inefficient if the team makes repairs under duress and needs to hustle for tools.

"It's a pain," she says to O'Donnell. "God forbid you leave something at the truck if something goes wrong,"

Danica Patrick exits her hauler to return to the track for another practice.(Photo: Andrew Weber, USA TODAY Sports)

5:55 p.m.: On the way to her hauler, Patrick detours to Stenhouse's No. 17 truck.

"I thought I was going to catch you eating a bunch of candy on the down low," she says, handing her boyfriend a package of Sweet Tarts inscribed with "To: Richard" and "From: Your Anytime Valentine."

Patrick and Stenhouse discuss the plan for the second practice, and she informs him that the speeds might set the starting lineup for the race depending on a fan vote.

"I have to remind him time and time again that, 'Honey, I'm awesome,'" she jokes later

6:30 p.m.: After some downtime in her hauler to discuss Valentine's Day gifts (she got a case of Godiva chocolates; he got a flag resembling his native state of Mississippi), Patrick is back in the car for a second practice that goes more smoothly. She posts the fastest 10-lap average, and Gibson proclaims it a success after only 17 minutes. "Great job, guys," he radios. "We've got this car ready to race. It looks pretty damn sporty."

6:54 p.m.: Patrick runs into Hamlin, who begins teasing about Stenhouse, an avid golfer, playing in a charity golf tournament with a par-3 17th hole

"I'll bet him any amount of money he won't get on the green," Hamlin says.

7:35 p.m.: The first Stewart-Haas Racing debriefing of the season is in Kevin Harvick's hauler, and Patrick chats up Harvick while waiting for teammates Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch. The topic? Juice cleansing.

Patrick recently was tested for food intolerance and learned she has a sensitivity to egg whites and "everything in the cheese department.

"I'm messed up and basically can't eat anything," she laughs about adapting to smoothies with kale, spinach, apple, pear, banana and lemon. "It sucks. Today was my first day without eggs. So sad."

The mood turns serious after all the drivers and crew chiefs arrive. Stewart leads with a dissection of his day, followed by Harvick, Patrick and Busch. After a 30-minute discussion, Patrick drapes an arm around Stewart, who is back behind the wheel after a six-month layoff, and asks "Are you OK?"

"I'm good," he says.

8:15 p.m.: There is no Valentine's Day date for Patrick, who dined with her beau a night earlier, but she still is in the spirit while exiting the garage and blows a kiss to fans atop the viewing deck. "Happy Valentine's Day," she says, "thanks for sticking around."

SATURDAY

7:40 p.m.: "You got me good," Stenhouse tells Patrick just before a golf cart whisks her to the pits for pre-race introductions. "Think about it."

Patrick has no idea and spends the rest of the ride mulling its meaning. "If it were him getting me, it would be farting," she says. "But with me I'm not sure."

Danica Patrick had an early end to her Sprint Unlimited when boyfriend Ricky Stenhouse Jr., left, crashed into her during a multicar incident.(Photo: Jasen Vinlove, USA TODAY Sports)

7:57 p.m.: Patrick is handed a bottle of water and her new jacket, which has been affixed with sponsor logos, and climbs up a stair-step ladder into the bed of a pickup truck for a ride around the track.

8:03 p.m.: The mob around the No. 10 car is the largest as Patrick arrives with her handlers. "You want me to pull somebody, just point at them," a security official tells the entourage.

That's not necessary during an impromptu but orderly meet and greet with fans around the car. Patrick draws a chorus of "awws" as she picks up Ryder Snow, a 4-year-old from Oviedo, Fla., with terminal brain cancer, and autographs his gray Danica T-shirt. Patrick then wanders back to give Stenhouse a good luck kiss and wish Stewart luck in his return. "I'll watch for you on my bumper," she says.

9:45 p.m.: Patrick's next meeting with Stewart is in the track's care center after a nine-car crash ends with Stenhouse, whose vision is blocked by a crumpled hood, ripping the left side off Patrick's car.

After a round of interviews, Patrick checks on her crew, which has turned to preparing her Daytona 500 car for Sunday qualifying. Leaving the garage, she takes a selfie with a fan in an Alabama jacket.

"Today was a really bad day," she says before entering her motorhome. "But the quickest way to have a really (bad) year in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series is to get down. Because tomorrow's going to come and the next weekend you race, and you can either just forget about it and move on, or you can dwell on it and let it affect every single race after that. You've just got to suck it up.

Danica Patrick flips the coin at the 2015 GoDaddy Bowl between the Arkansas State Red Wolves and the Toledo Rockets at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in Mobile, Ala., on Jan. 4. (Photo: Michael Chang, Getty Images)

Danica Patrick waves to her fans after making NASCAR history by becoming the first woman to win a Sprint Cup pole. Patrick qualified first for the 2013 Daytona 500 on Feb. 17. (Photo: Kevin Liles, USA TODAY Sports)

Danica Patrick was the eighth driver out on the track during qualifying for the 2013 Daytona 500. She posted a speed of 196.434 mph, which held up throughout the day. (Photo: Douglas Jones, USA TODAY Sports)

Danica Patrick waves to the fans during driver introductions at the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series AdvoCare 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sept 2, 2012 in Hampton, Georgia. (Photo: By John Harrelson, Getty Images)

Danica Patrick, driver of the #10 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet, leads a group of cars during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series AAA 400 at Dover International Speedway on Sept 30, 2012. (Photo: By Tom Pennington, Getty Images)

Danica Patrick waves to fans during driver introductions prior to the start of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Daytona 500 at Daytona International Speedway on February 26, 2012 in Daytona Beach, Florida. (Photo: By Jared C. Tilton, Getty Images for NASCAR)

Danica Patrick greets fans on the grid during qualifying for the NASCAR Nationwide Series Dollar General 300 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on Oct 12, 2012 in Charlotte, N.C. (Photo: By Tyler Barrick, Getty Images for NASCAR)